Last night we went to a Fish and Chips place for dinner called Ron n’ Jay’s Chippy. It is touted as being an authentic English fish and chips shop. The owner is from England and seems to be somewhat of an English Football nut. He has banners and such all over the place that says Liverpool on them and others that say Manchester on them. The owner saw me taking a picture of his Liverpool towel that was on the wall and when I was paying he asked me is I was a Liverpool fan. I replied no and that I could really care less. At the look of shock on his face (or horror) I did have to throw in my ignorance by asking if they were a soccer team or something. He got a look of relief on his face after he realized that I wasn’t putting his team down, I was only ignorant. Ignorance does have its benefits at times.
As for the food, well I have never been to England so I could not say one way or the other if it is authentic. I can tell you that the golden brown batter on the fish is crisp, flavorful and cooked to perfection. The chips are in a class by themselves and defy adequate description. I thought I was going to have to spear G-man’s hand with my plastic fork when he finished his chips and tried to work on mine. They have malt vinegar on the tables. You have to have malt vinegar with fish and chips in my opinion so I loved that part of it. And did I mention that you get a choice of gravy or curry with your chips? We tried both. G-man liked the gravy and I liked the curry. All in all I give it high marks. Good food, good service, large portions and small prices. And the delicious surprise? They have a little grocery section of English food items. They have items like Cadbury chocolates, Heinz baked beans, mustards, etc. We couldn’t help it, we bought some of the Cadbury Flake chocolates. OMG! Now I am kicking myself for not buying the whole lot. That was great chocolate.
The drawback to the experience? Yes, there is one. They have limited seating. We opted to dine outside unfortunately. The restaurant is located on a very busy and very loud street. So when motorcycles would roar by you could not hear yourself think. Surely that can’t be good for the digestion. It would have been nicer had the traffic died down a little. Nothing like hearing motorists honking at each other and watching them flip each other off as you are trying to eat. Next time we will sit inside.
We went to a book store after dinner so G-man could do some travel research. G-man tells me that he is looking into an overnighter in Chicago for our anniversary at the end of April. That would be nice. Then he told me about the parking situation in Chicago. Chicago is like New Orleans in the manner that you have to pay for parking at your hotel. So in addition to paying over inflated room rates like $250 a night and up, you also have to pay $30 a day (or portion thereof) for parking. That is an outrage to me. I feel that if I am paying $250 a night for a bed you should dammed well throw in some parking too. I am such a hick.
Yesterday I finished planting all of my plants. So far in the vegetable department that makes tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, scallions and green beans. I still had some space left in one of the garden plots so it was off to the plant store last night. I ended up getting jalapenos, banana peppers and pea plants. They were planted this morning. Even though I don’t have a green thumb, I sometimes like to pretend that I do.
After the planting I washed the Tracker and the Nissan. I have my back turned to the world and am turning the outside spigot off when I had the pants scared off of me. My holy roller self proclaimed faith healer neighbor walked up behind me quietly and tapped me on the shoulder. I was so startled I jumped a mile and yelled “What the F- - k?” while turning around. Yes, I dropped an F-bomb on a Christian. I am going to hell for sure. Then to make matters worse I tell her “sorry, you scared the hell out of me”. Are you allowed to say “hell” around Christians?
